U.S. taxpayers gave abortion groups $1.6 billion in three years: gov’t report

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 8, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Abortion organizations received approximately $1.6 billion of U.S. taxpayer money from 2013 to 2015, according to a new government report.

This report comes from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which examined federal funding for providers of “preventive, reproductive, and diagnostic health care services in the United States or abroad.”

According to the report, during the fiscal years 2013 to 2015, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) gave away a total of roughly $27 billion in such funds. Some of this money funded abortion entities International Planned Parenthood Federation, Marie Stopes International, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA).

Some money also went to organizations like federally qualified health centers, which don’t commit abortions but often do dispense potentially abortifacient drugs.

Most of the $1.6 billion went to PPFA. This is consistent with the more than $500 million in federal funding the abortion giant reports annually.

The London-based Marie Stopes received $110 million over the three year period. Planned Parenthood’s international arm received $14 million.

“No matter our views on abortion, or the party label beside our name, we must ensure that our money is spent responsibly and with integrity,” said Rep. Diane Black, R-TN. She was among the lawmakers who commissioned the report.

“Abortion is not family planning,” said Black. “Abortion is family destruction, and the fact that $1.5 billion in taxpayer dollars is funneled to this industry is sickening. The American people deserve better.”

Planned Parenthoods that received the most money are under investigation

The report also breaks down Planned Parenthood subsidies by affiliate. It indicates that the five biggest beneficiaries of government money were Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties, Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles, Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest, and Planned Parenthood Northern California.

In December 2016, the U.S. House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives referred all of these affiliates except for Orange and San Bernardino to the U.S. Justice Department for criminal investigation for trafficking aborted baby body parts.

“A similar protection should become the standard for all government funding; abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood – responsible for killing more than seven million unborn children – must no longer be subsidized by the American taxpayer,” said Smith.

Black, meanwhile, has introduced legislation that would place a one-year moratorium on federal funding to Planned Parenthood and redirect the money to community health centers. Black has argued that defunding Planned Parenthood year-by-year rather than permanent law can overcome this hurdle, since budget measures can still pass the Senate by simple majority.

Planned Parenthood’s defenders argue that because existing law forbids tax dollars from being spent on abortions, defunding it would only hinder the organization’s other alleged health services. But pro-lifers note that money is fungible, meaning that public funding Planned Parenthood uses for approved purposes frees funds from other sources to be spent on abortions. The Susan B. Anthony List reports that the $326,400,000 rise in Planned Parenthood’s federal funding from 2000 to 2013 “resulted in a 66 percent increase in the number of abortions and a 61 percent decrease in the number of adoption referrals.”